"That's Life Octavio": Patricio Wood's look at filmmaker Octavio Cortázar

January 21, 2022

The Chaplin cinema hosted the premiere of the documentary "That's Life Octavio", an audiovisual that under the direction of actor Patricio Wood approaches the professional life of the renowned Cuban filmmaker.

After winning the Cuban Film Promotion Fund in its second call, said material was produced, which intertwines images and audio archives of interviews conducted with the filmmaker, with a more artistic, dreamlike element: the interpretation, by young actor Carlos Alberto Méndez, of a young Octavio.

"This project does not escape the desire, the profound longing to search in my affections. In other words, we are talking about Octavio Cortázar, whom I consider a father in art," Patricio Wood previously published in the Cine Cubano magazine.

Precisely, it is a personal interest that motivated Wood, who in 1976 began his professional relationship with Cortázar, when he starred in "El brigadista", the filmmaker's first fiction feature film.

In 30 minutes of duration, it traces the trajectory of the artist who died in 2008, and who remains in the history of cinema on the Island as a member of a select list of intellectuals who left their mark on the filmography of the Greater Antilles in the 20th century.

Wood's interest focused on the professional aspect, as a sign of respect to Cortázar, who always established distance between his personal and family life, and his work. In this way, the documentary addresses the creative process and the filmmaker's vision of some of his works.

Likewise, other exponents of cinema in Cuba participate as interviewees: Manolo Pérez, Raúl Rodríguez, Manuel Herrera, Enrique Pineda and Luis Lacosta.

Along with the warm welcome the documentary received at the Chaplin, it was screened on national television, to make it available to those interested who could not attend the venue.